A Dream in Polar Fog is the first story in which we have seen a perspective on Russian culture from a non-Russian. And it is fascinating to see him (in this case a Canadian named John MacLennan) attempt to interact with the native people of Siberia. His interactions with the indigenous people create a sharp contrast between his comfortable modern world, where he longed for adventure and danger, and their far more severe and intense world, where they don’t necessarily have the luxury of yearning for another life. Everything is different, and they both feel as though their culture is superior. John constantly thinks of the natives in a negative light, calling them “savages” and describing them as “unwashed.” The natives take a less harsh tone but are just as critical. They don’t seem to understand the white man, confused by the way they speak, interact with each other, and what they choose to value.

When comparing these two cultures, it is clear that one has more influence than the other. Throughout the last few centuries, Western culture has rapidly encroached on indigenous cultures around the world, and Orvo feels the pressures this creates. He is constantly worrying about letting down the traditional beliefs of his ancestors and at one point, while lost in thought, he finds himself feeling guilty about letting the foreign and seductive feeling of greed win: [he was] sure that he had made a mistake in submitting to the worst of temptations – greed. Yes, it went without saying that those goods were excellent. And yet they had lived without such thing, lived as Orvo’s ancestors had done, without tobacco, tea, the bad joy-making water, woven cloth, metal needles, and had managed to hunt with bows and arrows. These new things, brought by the white men to Chukchi shores, had only complicated life. The sweetness of sugar also held a bitter tang.” Orvo is struggling with a conflict we have seen throughout this class, a conflict of tradition and simplicity with technology and wealth. A battle between the old and new that was constantly being waged in the 20th century.

However, even though Orvo is struggling with John’s culture, he still manages to try and understand where John is coming from. At one point he figures that as much as he is alienated by John’s way of life, John must be alienated by the Chukchi way of life, saying: “That world [the white man’s world] had not set well with him, but who can vouch that the white men like Chukchi way of life? All people live their own way, and there’s no use making another person do as you do, changing his customs and habits.”

And, after the initial conflict, this becomes a common theme throughout the first ten chapters, even with the divide between the characters, John and Orvo manage to connect in a basic but profound way. At one point John is thirsty, and at first he reacts with disgust as Orvo gives him water in a primitive flask, warm from being kept underneath his coat, but then John has a change of heart after he feels refreshed by the water and Orvo’s generosity: “John managed a smile. He had wanted to show his gratitude with it, but something sparked inside him, and the resulting smile was sincere, not forced.” This interaction shows that underneath the tension between their cultures there is a connection, and (perhaps undermining the argument Tolstoy was making in the Cossacks that Olenin’s relationship with the Cossack culture was largely superficial) that there are unbreakable bonds that can be brought together between all humans no matter where they come from.